Mount Timpanogos Goat - photo credit: Aaron Springston
What if life was “better” before the industrial age? We have been taught that people were worked to the bone simply providing for their daily needs, and once machines were invented, our lives became easier. According to Iain McGilchrist, who did extensive research for his book The Matter With Things, before the age of factories and machines, the average person had more than 180 days a year of leisure. Not only that, but they would take two or three-hour lunch breaks and do things which make life full and happy. So, although we have been taught that life became easier after industrialization, perhaps that is a myth along with much of our so-called history. Yes, there was much hard work involved in doing the wash and cooking and gardening and taking care of animals, but what of the difficult work we do today? Did washing machines and microwaves actually make life easier for us? In this age of technology and the monstrous creations it has spawned, we must make time to enjoy real things — such as, flowers and butterflies and walking in the woods. Finding enjoyment in interactions with our children — or people, in any way possible — is the way to true happiness. I highly recommend listening to Dr. McGilchrist’s latest video which you can find on youtube under the heading of “The Counterintuitive Need to Slow Down and Find Spaciousness”. It holds much wisdom for us to ponder.
“Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.”
—Mary Baker Eddy- Science & Health Page 58: 7-11
“Today we seek no idols. Peace cannot be found in them. The peace of God is ours, and only this will we accept and want. Peace be to us today. For we have found a simple, happy way to leave the world of ambiguity, and to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with single purpose and companionship. For peace is union, if it be of God. We seek no further. We are close to home, and draw still nearer every time we say: There is no peace except the peace of God, and I am glad and thankful it is so.
—A Course in Miracles W-200.11:1-9
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